The Right to Offend

[Thorne]

Thorne

Precisely my point. Ordinary people rejoicing in the 911. But you take offense and never stop for one second to ask the question why? Your concern is not about them by your flag. 3000+ died in NY, we al grieve, But how many in Iraq to find that non existant "massive arsenal" of WMD. And they are still dieing today as we speak, but hey who gives a F. Lets talk about a flag and forget human lives and suffering.

May I respectfully suggest to you there is something wrong.

In the first place, I have not ever condoned the war in Iraq. I have always believed and still believe that the we had no business going in there. However, after learning in much more detail what kinds of things were happening there under Saddam's regime, how many of his own people he and his sons were killing, and seeing the unbridled joy in the faces of those people when they pulled down his statue, well that ALMOST made the whole thing palatable. And there is little question that Saddam had WMD's. He used them, several times, against the Kurds. The fact that they weren't found only means that they may have been well hidden. After all, Iraq is mostly burnt over desert and mountains. You can hide a lot of stuff out there. Or not.

For my part, I find it hard to get too upset over symbolic attacks on the US. If someone wants to burn the US flag, it doesn't really bother me. If someone wants to hang an effigy of a political leader, I don't care. It's too easy to manipulate people by making them cherish symbols rather than reality. Let them destroy the symbols all they want. But when they attack someone else's symbols, they shouldn't be too surprised if their own symbols come under attack.

And

[Moonraker]

Again I say I don't want to hijack this thread so this will be my last comment on this thread.

The fact that they weren't found only means that they may have been well hidden. After all, Iraq is mostly burnt over desert and mountains. You can hide a lot of stuff out there. Or not.

True but when you have the relevant generals and ministers under the soft touch of your interogators you most probably know the full truth. Your view that they're still there but hidden isn't whats in the official reports now. Incidentally don't chemical and biological weapons degrade so would have been useless.

But when they attack someone else's symbols, they shouldn't be too surprised if their own symbols come under attack.

I think the problem may be it isn't just symbols being attacked and that the people whose own symbols are coming under attack aren't the ones who attecked yours.